Surprise. Football fans are upset. They're ticked at New England coach Bill Belichick for running up the score on Washington. They're ticked at Chargers coach Norv Turner for not scoring in the second half of a 35-10 win over Houston. Can these people make up their minds?

Me, I don't have a problem with much of it. These are football coaches we're talking about here. Wherever paranoia ends, that's where they begin. As a good friend who has been a part of the NFL for 30 years once said: “The thing you have to remember about coaches is that most of them were players.”

I guarantee you that when Georgia Tech was beating Cumberland 222-0, John Heisman had his starting quarterback throwing bombs as time expired. What a sportsman, John Heisman. They should have named a trophy after him.

Why should Belichick be any different? No one alive can out-arrogance Belichick. So he got himself wounded earlier this year, was caught cheating and instead of licking his wounds, he's biting everyone in his way. No quarter. No letup. Go ahead and cry and whine when it's over. Think he cares?

Don't for a second believe Belichick's scorched-earth policy isn't aimed directly at Commissioner Roger Goodell, who fined the coach $500,000, the Patriots organization $250,000 (chump change) and took away a first-round draft choice for videotaping the Jets' signals.

Belichick obviously enjoys playing Gen. Sherman. He had an opportunity Sunday to smoke a Hall of Fame coach (the 'Skins' Joe Gibbs) and that's just what he did, 52-7. But it was how he did it.

Leading 38-0 in the fourth quarter, he still had quarterback Tom Brady in the game. They went for it on fourth-and-1. They threw on fourth-and-11. There was a 35-yard fling to Randy Moss before Brady finally was removed.

“What do you want us to do, kick a field goal?” Belichick said of going for it on fourth downs. “It's 38-0. It's fourth down. We're just out there playing.”

He also had them out there playing the week before, when he ordered Brady back into the game midway through the fourth quarter against Miami. Final score: Pats 49, Dolphins 28. The Rotten Fish had gotten a bit too close to Belichick's nostrils.

The great coach no doubt took Sunday's thing too far, and bringing Brady back into the game two weeks ago was ridiculous. But he wasn't breaking any rules. If you don't like the way he does business, stop him. He's got people saying: “We'll see you again, Bill Belichick!”

I'm sure that has him shivering. His average win this season is by 25.5 points. The Pats have played eight games and scored 331 points. If teams don't like getting beat so terribly, maybe they should forfeit.

Besides, did it take the last couple of weeks for us to figure out Belichick isn't a likely candidate for canonization? Cantonization, yes. I doubt that cheating rap will keep him out of the Hall of Fame, and, remember, he has never had a team like this. He has won three Super Bowls, all by field goals.

So he's not a good guy. Deal with it. Beat his butt, if you can, and you can't.

Meanwhile, there's Norv Turner. Nice fellow. He won a game 35-10 Sunday after leading 35-3 at the half. Who was the quarterback who genuflected three consecutive times to end the game? Philip Rivers, starter.

If I have a major problem with any of this, it's that I don't believe starting quarterbacks should be playing late in blowouts. Quarterbacks are the engines. There aren't many good ones and even fewer decent backups. Lose your engine, and the car isn't going to move.

But coaches don't like to mess with success. There's no reason Billy Volek couldn't have played in that fourth quarter, but Turner, like just about every head coach, worries.

Turner didn't get a score in the second half. But, up 35-3, he did have Rivers throw long to wide-open Chris Chambers with 5:35 to play in the third quarter. Rivers overthrew the newcomer, or it would have been 42-3. Still, would Turner have removed Rivers then? No chance.

Coaches constantly are trying things, some of them new. The throw to Chambers was new. The Chargers haven't gone deep that much. Now maybe they can. So they didn't score in the second half. Big deal. LaDainian Tomlinson missed most of the fourth quarter.

“There were some things we could have executed in the second half,” Turner was saying Monday. “If we'd executed them, somebody might be asking me about running up the score. So, I'm not disappointed in what we did. I'm excited about what we did.”

Well, many fans aren't. They want blood, but then they don't want blood. Go figure.

But it's hard to feel sorry for anyone. If you're playing New England, if you're the Colts this week, play better, coach better or don't gripe. The Pats are not the most talented team in NFL history. There have to be flaws. Find them.

As for Chargers fans, 35-10 isn't half bad. Problem was for many, it was only half good. There were leftovers. Enjoy them.